Revamped, auto-expiring WhatsApp Status rolls out to all making it more like Snapchat

Facebook’s quest to make all of its mobile apps more like Snapchat hasn’t ended. The latest victim is WhatsApp, though the Snapchatifying isn’t as prevalent here as it is in Instagram or Facebook Messenger, for example. The good news is that you can simply ignore the new functionality if you want to – it’s easy.

The bad news? Well, it’s still there. The new WhatsApp Status is now rolling out to all of the app’s users, following a testing period which began last November. Up until this point you were only able to issue a text status message in WhatsApp, but from now on it will basically act like a clone of Instagram Stories, itself a clone of Snapchat Stories.

You can add pictures, videos, and GIFs in your status now, personalizing them with emojis, text, and drawings. Every status automatically expires after 24 hours, of course, as otherwise this wouldn’t have been enough of a Snapchat rip-off. Oh, and there’s also a “seen by” counter. In an interesting twist, WhatsApp says your statuses will be end-to-end encrypted just like your messages.